Third book in a trilogy by the same author. It follows 'Insuring security : biopolitics, security and risk' (2011) and 'Insuring war : sovereignty, security and risk' (2012).

Includes bibliographical references (page 136-149) and index.

preface -- The book cover -- Introduction : life insurances and the politics of vital uncertainty -- The problem : the technological transcendence of liberalism -- Insuring the life excess -- Capital securitisation : an emerging order in the valuation of life -- Uberrima fides, trust and contracted life -- Sex, insurance and the valuation of lives -- Life beyond insurance, life as the potential of becoming -- An epistemology of life insurance.

Life insurance is generally accepted to be part of an apparatus of security aimed at securing the everyday life of populations in advanced liberal economies. What is ultimately protected by insurance instruments are the livelihoods and lifestyles of individuals who purchase securities (policies) to protect themselves against life events such as illness and death. This volume is intended as a provocation for thinking liberal life as the result of three mutually implicated problems: value - security - risk. Their strategic interaction is observed here as materialised in life insurance, which is understood as constituting a political economy of security.